Byte-Sized Businesses: My A.I. Assisted Biz Blitz - 29
Edition 29 - A New Tumbler Design Technique
Recap: At first, I challenged myself to launch two micro-businesses per month with the help of AI. Now I am shifting towards building on top of those micro-businesses. You can get caught up on the details of the challenge in my original post here.
For new readers, you can scroll to the bottom of this post to see a full list and summary of the micro-businesses that have been launched. Not each one will be covered in every weekly edition, but I will be sure to keep you up to date on all of the key points as things progress.
As I am optimizing, I have shifted my efforts towards three of the businesses. Those are Nordic Jo’s Coffee, Consulting/Coaching for the Coffee Industry, and selling Tumbler Wrap Designs on Etsy.
In This Edition
Wrapping Last Week’s Edition into a New Tumbler Wrap Design Technique
Wrapping up the Year
A New Tumbler Wrap Design Technique
Last week, I shared a new technique for generating consistent characters in Midjourney. If you haven’t read that edition yet, I’d recommend checking that out first here.
I decided to take the character that I created, the Woodsman, and experiment with including that character in my Tumbler designs. To do so I came up with a three step process.
Step 1 - Seamless Base Design
The first step was getting my base design to use as the background for my design. For all of my tumbler designs, I try to go for a seamless design, meaning that there is a smooth transition in graphics where the seam comes together on the tumbler wrap. For this one, I wanted to use a forest color pattern. Including --tile in the prompt creates the seamless pattern effect. Note, I used Version 5.2 of Midjourney because the Vary Region feature will be needed in Step 2, and that feature isn’t available yet for Version 6.
Step 2 - Photo Element
I wanted this particular design to also have a photo-realistic element to it, especially with the character. I have found that it is helpful to first prompt for a photo-realistic background to insert the character in for the character to become photo-realistic itself. So for this one, I prompted for a basic photograph of a forest. In this instant, I did use Version 6 to get the best photo-realistic elements possible and being that I didn’t need to modify this image itself.
I then copied the image link for my photo image, went back to my pattern, and used the Vary Region feature on that original version to insert a prompt to pull in my forest picture as a reference.
Step 3 - Adding the Character
Next, I took the resulting image from Step 2 and did another Vary Region prompt. This time, I used my prefer option “--woodsman” from the previous edition plus a generic character prompt. Note, as discussed in the last edition, I could have included that text prompt right in my prefer option, and I wouldn’t have had to add it now, but I set mine up with the character reference images only.
I personally really like the resulting design from this technique. It is somewhat abstract, and I like the transition from pattern to a more realistic image at the center. It all kind of blends together like a mirage. The trees in the original flannel pattern was also a helpful random nuance from Midjourney that really added to the overall design.
Wrapping up the Year
2023 has been an amazing year. I want you to know that I really appreciate all of you taking the time to read and follow along with me as I take this journey. It has been a fun and busy year. I tried a lot of things, learned a lot, and I’m happy to see a couple of these early endeavors starting to grow. 2024 will bring the next steps.
That being said, I’m going to take a little time off of this newsletter. After getting married this fall, my wife and I have decided to take a trip to Thailand for our Honeymoon, so I will be away for most of January. So, I’m going to focus on getting my business in a spot where I can step away for a bit. That mainly means a lot of coffee deliveries for Nordic Jo’s. And then I’ll be off traveling. But I will be back with new editions come February.
Happy New Year to you all!!!
The List So Far
Dough Control - Dough Control was a blog on cash management for small businesses that I originally started a couple years ago, but hadn’t maintained. I decided to revitalize that blog with the help of AI tools like ChatGPT. This will be a longer duration project, with the goal of developing a following before monetizing.
Canvas and Quirk (originally PleasurePrinted) - This was the first Etsy shop that I launched. It features captivating nature scenes on canvas or metal prints for home or office decor. The images are generated by Midjourney and enlarged with VanceAI. The product descriptions are drafted through ChatGPT. This shop has now been transitioned into a general store through which I will be launching all of my Etsy oriented micro-businesses / product categories. Update: This shop was transitioned again to be solely focused on the Tumbler Wrap Designs listed below.
LittleDreamersDen - A second Etsy shop that also focuses on wall art, but on the other side of the pricing spectrum. The same tools are used to create the works, but the finished products are posters rather than the more expensive canvas or metal prints. The focus of this shop is nursery room decor.
The Consulting Gig - I received a request for some costing and supply chain help. To start, I’ll provide as much value as I can up front. The hope is that the potential client will find it worth hiring me for consulting/coaching on an on-going basis. I plan on using AI to boost my speed in compiling research such as lists of potential supply chain partners.
CozyGifted (originally FlickersOfFantasy) - The third Etsy shop. This shop was originally planned to be as a candle shop, but I have pivoted to also use it for other physical items that work well as gifts.
Wirestock - Selling stock images generated with Midjourney. Wirestock is easy to use right in Discord and allows you to list your images for sale across multiple platforms at once.
Tumbler Wrap Designs (Digital Files) - Digital files of designs to be printed for tumbler wraps. These are sold through Etsy to hobbyists and vendors that sell tumblers in which the print designs on.
Personalized Enamel Coated Camping Mugs - The products are items that I am fulfilling through print on demand services with personalization enabled through HelloCustom, an AI software that streamlines the personalization process between Etsy and Printify.
Personalized Blankets - Similar to the mugs mentioned above, these are fulfilled through the print on demand services of Printify with the personalization being enabled through HelloCustom.
Nordic Jo’s Coffee - Not a new launch, but actually my first business. I will be sharing how I am using AI to produce some of my content for Nordic Jo’s.